Node support for apt

[happybanana9]

Hi, I wanted to download node for my ubuntu server, but currently only external package managers (nvm, fnm) and prebuilt binaries are supported.
Would it be possible to make a .deb package for debian based distros for download?
From that you could just use apt install ./node.deb. No external package managers.

[thinkingdev9]

Hi, @happybanana9 . Merry Christmas!
You have to follow steps below to fix this issue.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential fakeroot dpkg-dev

Download Node.js Source:
Get the source code for the version of Node.js you want to package.

VERSION=v16.16.0  # Replace with your desired version
wget https://nodejs.org/dist/$VERSION/node-$VERSION.tar.gz
tar -xzf node-$VERSION.tar.gz
cd node-$VERSION

Build Node.js from source.

./configure
make -j$(nproc)

Install Node.js into a directory which will be used to create the .deb package.

mkdir -p ../nodejs-staging/usr/local
make install DESTDIR=$(pwd)/../nodejs-staging/usr/local

Create the necessary files for the .deb package.

    mkdir -p ../nodejs-staging/DEBIAN

cat <<EOF > ../nodejs-staging/DEBIAN/control
Package: nodejs
Version: ${VERSION:1}
Section: web
Priority: optional
Architecture: amd64
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.17), libstdc++6 (>= 5.2)
Maintainer: Your Name [email protected]
Description: Node.js - JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine
Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications.
EOF

Build the .deb Package:

cd ../
dpkg-deb --build nodejs-staging

Now you can install the .deb package using apt.

    sudo apt install ./nodejs-staging.deb